The Camera's Jeremy Papasso photographed this bull elk in a backyard near 10th Street and Mapleton Avenue on Dec. 26 after a mail carrier reported that it briefly had trapped him on a front porch. It is believed this is the elk that was shot and killed Tuesday night in Boulder. (Jeremy Papasso / Daily Camera file photo)

Two Boulder police officers are the subject of both an internal investigation by the police department and a criminal investigation by Colorado Parks and Wildlife after they shot a large bull elk in Mapleton Hill but apparently did not report it to anyone.

According to Boulder police, one officer shot the animal while on patrol, and another officer who was off-duty took it home for the meat.

Boulder police officials initially denied reports from neighbors that the animal was shot late Tuesday night, but after seeing pictures of the dead elk provided to the Daily Camera by neighbors, they looked into the matter.

Officials said the officer told investigators the elk appeared injured, with a limp and some of its antlers broken off. The elk was killed in a yard at Ninth Street and Mapleton Avenue with a single shot from a shotgun, police said. The incident happened around 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Neighbors told the Camera that officers told them they planned to put down the elk because of reports it had been behaving aggressively and not to be alarmed if they heard a gunshot. One woman said she saw the animal a few hours before it was killed, and it was not limping.

Boulder police chief Mark Beckner said he would refrain from commenting on the officers' actions until the investigation is complete, but he did say that not filing a report of the incident and not calling someone in to pick up the elk would "not be standard protocol at all."

"We're very concerned," he said.

Boulder police officers are supposed to file a report whenever they discharge their weapon, no matter the circumstances. They typically work with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to determine whether an animal needs to be put down, officials said, and would notify dispatchers before they shot an animal. Officers also are supposed to notify Parks and Wildlife when they take down large animals.

Boulder police spokeswoman Kim Kobel said it is not standard practice for officers to take home meat from animals that are put down in the course of duty.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife took possession early Thursday of what remains of the large elk, which frequented the area along Mapleton Avenue between Ninth and 11th streets, spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said. Churchill said she could not say whether wildlife officers took possession of the head and antlers, but she said they took "everything" that remained and that officials would do as much of a necropsy as possible.

On Wednesday, Churchill said the department was concerned because the elk was a "large game animal and a trophy animal." On Thursday, she said she could not discuss the case further because it is an "active investigation." However, she said it would focus on the "wildlife perspective" and whether any laws around taking of large game were violated.

Samson's Law, passed in 1998 after a well-known bull elk in Estes Park was killed by a poacher who was fined just a few hundred dollars, adds substantial fines for the killing of trophy animals. The killing of a bull elk with six-point antlers or larger can carry a fine of up to $10,000, on top of the other criminal penalties for violating hunting rules.

In addition, hunting is never allowed within city limits.

Beckner also apologized Thursday for Boulder police initially denying any involvement in the shooting.

"To our knowledge at that time we didn't know we were involved, and I want to apologize," he said at an afternoon news conference.

Boulder police have not identified the officers involved in the shooting, but a neighbor Thursday provided the Camera with a photograph of an officer posing with the slain elk. His jacket bears the name "S. Carter," and officer Sam Carter was on duty that night, according to city records.

Kobel said Boulder police would not identify the officers because the case is a personnel matter. Churchill said Parks and Wildlife will not identify the officers until the investigation is complete.

Beckner said the officer who shot the elk was not on duty Thursday, but he has not been placed on leave.

Cmdr. Rick Brough of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office confirmed that at least one on-duty deputy was also at the scene. Brough said once the Sheriff's Office became aware of the incident, supervisors requested the deputy write a report about it.

Brough said it appears the deputy may have helped load the elk into the truck, but the Sheriff's Office will wait to review the deputy's report once it is filed to determine whether a personnel investigation will be necessary.

A uniformed deputy can be seen in the background of one of the photos of the elk provided to the Camera.

Roger Koenig lives at the corner of Ninth and Mapleton and provided several pictures of the aftermath of the elk's death to the Camera. He said he found it curious that after the police officer killed the elk and a sheriff's deputy arrived on the scene, a third man showed up in a pickup truck to remove it, as opposed to a wildlife officer with a better-suited flatbed truck.

Koenig said it took the three men nearly an hour and a half to load the animal -- which they estimated to weigh between 700 and 800 pounds -- into the pickup truck, and even then part of its rear quarters were hanging over the open end of the bed. He said the men talked about needing a roadkill tag for the animal so it could be driven out of the area.

The elk appears to be the same one that reportedly trapped a mail carrier on a porch in the area last week and was photographed by a Camera photographer later that evening.

Neighbors said the elk continued to frequent the area along Mapleton between Ninth and 11th streets and behaved aggressively toward passersby, some of whom approached the elk to take pictures of it.

Other neighbors said it had been a frequent visitor for several years and had not been aggressive in the past. There was a memorial for the elk Thursday morning, with residents laying pine boughs along the streets it frequented.

JoOnna Silberman, who lives in the 300 block of Spruce Street, said she saw the animal a few hours before it was killed, and it was not limping.

"I can't imagine that in the few short hours between when I saw him and the time this officer said he was injured, that he became that injured," said Silberman, who noted that if a car hit the elk, the car would almost certainly have been damaged. "Why wouldn't you call Division of Wildlife? The whole thing is suspicious."

Kobel said the officers involved were identified by talking with other officers on that shift, and they are cooperating with investigators.

Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said he is monitoring the case and awaiting the results of the investigation by Parks and Wildlife to determine if any criminal violations occurred.

Tom Mikesell, president of the Colorado Outfitters Association, which represents outfitters, many of whom work with and supply hunters, said he couldn't speculate about the specific incident in Boulder, but the circumstances raise a lot of questions.

The state closely regulates the disposal of meat and body parts from animals that are killed outside of the regular hunting season, even in car accidents, in part to avoid a gray market in meat and trophies of questionable origin.

For example, people need permits to take home meat from roadkill, and people cannot harvest antlers as trophies from roadkill.

"The division needs to be looking into whether there were any laws violated," Mikesell said.

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